AdobeStock-zainab
Background
Climate change's impact can affect countries' competitiveness, change their comparative advantages, and reshape global trade patterns. Mitigation measures implemented to reduce domestic carbon emissions and increase sustainability, including those put in place by trade partner countries, can affect developing countries' trade and export profiles (UNCTAD, 2021).
Despite its significant role in current carbon dioxide emissions (CO2), trade can also support the diffusion and adoption of cleaner technologies and greener products and services. Trade and trade policies can be powerful tools to support low-carbon economic diversification, resilient climate-resilient growth, and support market access while contributing to mitigation and adaptation efforts.
Trade can facilitate access to environmentally preferable goods and services, technologies, and know-how critical to boosting innovation and building capabilities to support adaptation and mitigation efforts in countries. Trade-related measures such as tariffs, market-based mechanisms, subsidies, and technical regulations can facilitate energy transition, enhance the market for carbon-efficient products, and facilitate phasing out unsustainable economic activities.
Objectives
The Ad Hoc expert objective will be to introduce a set of draft guidelines for policymakers to mainstream trade and investment policy into their national climate plans, including Nationally Determined Contributions for the 2025 iteration (so called NDCs 3.0) for consideration and consultation by Member States. The draft guidelines are part of the COP29 Presidency Initiative “Baku Initiative on Climate Finance, Investment and Trade (BICFIT) Dialogue."
Luz Maria de la Mora is the Director of UNCTAD's Division on International Trade and Commodities. As a former Vice-Minister for International Trade and decades of government and private sector positions, Ms. de la Mora developed a career in international trade policy, negotiation, operations, and trade promotion.
During her tenure as Vice-Minister for International Trade of Mexico from 2018 to 2022, Ms. de la Mora led Mexico's trade and investment policy, overseeing fourteen free trade agreements with 51 countries. To bolster Mexico's development, she steered discussions in the World Trade Organization, the United States-Mexico-Canada Trade Agreement, Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, and Pacific Alliance, among others. She also coordinated policy dialogues and handled private sector consultations.
Ms. de la Mora holds a PhD in Political Science from Yale University, USA, a Master's degree in International Affairs from Carleton University, Canada, and a Bachelor's degree in International Relations from El Colegio de México, Mexico.
She is fluent in English and Spanish, and proficient in French.
Chantal Line Carpentier joined UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD)'s Division on International Trade and Commodities (DITC) in 2014, after serving as Chief, UNCTAD New York Office of the Secretary-General. She brings to the Branch over 25 years of work experience in international trade, and environmental and agro-economics.
Prior to working with UNCTAD, she supported the Commission on Sustainable Development and served as Major Groups (of non-State actors) coordinator for the UN Rio+20 Conference and the SDGs negotiations at the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA). She also supported the sustainable consumption and production and sustainable agriculture negotiations.
As Head of the North American Free Trade Agreement Commission for Environmental Cooperations, she lead work on the nexus of environment, economy, and trade. She also served as Agro-environmental Policy Analyst for Winrock International, and post-Doctoral fellow/Brazil office manager for the International Food Policy Research Institute.
She has an extensive list of publications on sustainable agriculture, trade and environment, sustainable consumption and production, financing for sustainable development, stakeholder engagement, global value chains, micro, small and medium enterprises, and economic empowerment of women.
She obtained a PhD. in Agro-Environmental Economics from Virginia Technology and MSc. and BSc. from McGill University.
Dr. Claudia Contreras joined UNCTAD in 2013.
Since 2020, she is an Economic Affairs Officer at the Trade, Environment and Sustainable Development Branch. Her work is focused on the interlinkages between climate change, environment, and trade and development.
Formerly, Claudia was a member of the Secretariat of the United Nations Commission on Science and Technology for Development (CSTD), and worked for the Chilean government on science, technology, and innovation policy.
Claudia holds a BSc in Economics from the University of Chile and graduated with an MSc in Management Research and a PhD in Development Studies from the University of Oxford.
David Vivas Eugui is Chief (a.i) of the Trade, Environment and Sustainable Development Branch at UNCTAD.
Previously, he was a Senior Economic Affairs Officer in UNCTAD’s Trade Negotiations and Commercial Diplomacy Branch, Deputy Programmes Director at the International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development (ICTSD), Senior Attorney at the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL), Attaché for Legal Affairs at the Mission of Venezuela to the World Trade Organization (WTO) and Staff Attorney at the Venezuelan Institute of Foreign Trade. David is an international expert with more than 20 years of experience on legal and economic issues.
He has worked as an advisor and consultant for various institutions, international and national organizations and has lectured on intellectual property, trade, oceans economy and environmental law at the University of Strasbourg (CEIPI), Universidad de Buenos Aires (Argentina), Universidad Javeriana (Colombia), Maastricht University (the Netherlands), WIPO Distant Learning Academy, and University of Business and International Studies (Switzerland).
He holds a JD from the Universidad Catolica Andres Bello, an LLM from Georgetown University and a Master in Transnational Business from the Universidad Externado de Colombia.
Related
Topic
Trade and environment Programme
Contact
Chantal Line Carpentier, Head Trade, environment Climate Change and Sustainable Development Branch, UNCTAD, [email protected]
Claudia Contreras, Economic Affairs Officer, Trade, environment Climate Change and Sustainable Development Branch: [email protected]